I sleep better with it open in hot weather, I imagine all the hot air rising up and leaving a cool chilled space behind it

I have excema and hot rooms at night are my worst nightmare. I have one of them room humifiders and I put that on an hour before I go to bed and its bliss. I got mine from freecycle, might be something to think about op

There is a similar thread on the the 'products' page at the moment and someone suggests putting a cold wet towel in front of a fan to cool the air rather than circulating the hot air around, I might give that a go - might be more effective than a bottle or bowl perhaps?

hi Bionic, we have the same problem re indoor cats and hot bedroom, such a pain!

What we've started doing, as well as having blackouts down and top part of window open all day, is to shut the cats in the living room from the time DD goes to bed (7pm) until we go to bed (11pm). That way we can have all the back doors and windows open and DD's bedroom door slightly open to create a good air flow when the cool evening air starts to circulate. It's still usually 24 to 25 degrees in there when we've had a hot day, but feels relatively comfortable.

Not perfect really, especially as she has eczema.

The fan is quite a good idea though, even though your room thermometer will probably read the same as it did before, the circulating air will make it more comfortable for your DD.

How well insulated is your loft? Sounds counterintuitive but packing it with thick insulation can really help as it blocks the sun's heat.

I demanded requested my DH to buy an air con unit when I was heavily pregnant in the last serious heatwave (summer 2006).

We have this in our bedroom (we co-sleep with the children). It has a timer and goes on for 30 minutes before the children go to bed. Maybe another 30 minutes if it gets to hot in the middle of the night.

It is expensive to run and not green but I don't care...I hate being too hot.

DON'T open the windows during the day - you'll be letting in air which will be warmer than the house and so heat the house and make it even harder to cool at night. Only open the windows once the outside temperature is lower than it is inside.